Is this RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphone?

RIM: Is this the new BlackBerry London?

With Research In Motion Ltd. under the gun to deliver its new BlackBerry 10 operating system before the end of 2012, one of the most common questions now swirling around Canada’s embattled tech icon is: What will the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones look like?

If recent photos circulated online are any indication, RIM’s next generation BlackBerry smartphones may look a bit like the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

On Monday, the BlackBerry news site Crackberry.com posted photos of what it says could be RIM’s first BB 10 smartphone, the BlackBerry London, a device that clearly looks like a “phonified” version of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. According to Crackberry, the London is expected to be designed for the United Kingdom smartphone market.

Because RIM’s new BB 10 smartphone operating system will be based on the same QNX technology that powers the PlayBook, it wouldn’t be surprising if the next generation of mobile phones coming out of Waterloo look more like slimmed down tablets than traditional BlackBerrys.

The first of RIM’s next evolution of smartphones are expected to launch in the second half of this year. According to a leaked RIM product road map posted to the Boy Genius Report blog, the first BlackBerry 10 device based off of the QNX platform is scheduled to be released in September.

RIM has not publicly commented on its timetable to deliver BlackBerry 10 devices to market, except to say the first devices are expected to launch in the second half of this year.

Of course, these aren’t the first photos of a device purporting to be RIM’s next evolution of the BlackBerry. In November, The Verge posted photos of a different device that also went by the name of the BlackBerry London.

Don’t expect RIM to shed any light on these devices. The company’s policy is to decline comment on rumours and speculation.